Artium Museoa, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basque Country presents the exhibition She Recalibrates by Aura Satz (Z Gallery, until 27 March 2022) as part of its Z Gallery programme. The exhibition uses films, drawings and objects to focus on the figure of a group of pioneering female authors in the creation of electronic music, including Daphne Oram, Laurie Spiegel and Beatriz Ferreyra. Artium Museum has also published a book with texts by Jo Hutton and Xabier Erkizia. The Z Gallery programme is curated by Garbiñe Ortega and aims to showcase works by artists making the leap into filmmaking and filmmakers exploring the exhibition format.

The She Recalibrates project by Aura Satz uses films and drawings to focus on the figure of pioneering women in the field of electronic music creation. In addition to the films dedicated to Daphne Oram, Laurie Spiegel and Beatriz Ferreyra, Satz is also presenting a series of fifteen drawings on black paper with titles featuring the names of authors such as Pauline Oliveros, Wendy Carlos, Delia Derbyshire, Eliane Radigue, Else Marie Pade, Maryanne Amacher, Tara Rodgers, Suzanne Ciani and Micheline Coulombe Saint Marcoux. Satz has placed a lenticular lens over each of the drawings in this series, thus giving the exhibition its name.

The exhibition also includes several display cabinets containing objects related to some of these artists: photographs (one of these, for example, shows Daphne Oram painting strips of transparent 35 mm film to be used in her Oramics Machine), books, sheet music and records, among others.

In Z Gallery programme, Aura Satz presents the films Oramics: Atlantis Anew, Little Doorways to Paths Not Yet Taken and Hacer una diagonal con la música, three works based on three pioneers in the field of electronic music.

The She Recalibrates project by Aura Satz uses films and drawings to focus on the figure of pioneering women in the field of electronic music creation. In addition to the films dedicated to Daphne Oram, Laurie Spiegel and Beatriz Ferreyra, Satz is also presenting a series of fifteen drawings on black paper with titles featuring the names of authors such as Pauline Oliveros, Wendy Carlos, Delia Derbyshire, Eliane Radigue, Else Marie Pade, Maryanne Amacher, Tara Rodgers, Suzanne Ciani and Micheline Coulombe Saint Marcoux. Satz has placed a lenticular lens over each of the drawings in this series, thus giving the exhibition its name.

The exhibition also includes several display cabinets containing objects related to some of these artists: photographs (one of these, for example, shows Daphne Oram painting strips of transparent 35 mm film to be used in her Oramics Machine), books, sheet music and records, among others.

In Z Gallery programme, Aura Satz presents the films Oramics: Atlantis Anew, Little Doorways to Paths Not Yet Taken and Hacer una diagonal con la música, three works based on three pioneers in the field of electronic music.

Hacer una diagonal con la música. 2019. 10 min.
A short film about Argentine electroacoustic composer Beatriz Ferreyra, a pioneer of musique concrète together with Pierre Schaeffer during the 1950s and 1960s. In this film, she discusses her “sound search” recording techniques and other thoughts on sound montage and spatialisation, including creaking doors, barking dogs and rainbow hands.

Oramics: Atlantis Anew. 2011. 7 min.
Conceived as an artist’s film that pays tribute to Daphne Oram, pioneer of British electronic music and co-founder of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1958, the film depicts a close encounter with her unique Oramics machine invention, housed in the Science Museum in London.

Little Doorways to Paths Not Yet Taken. 2016. 8 min.
Following Satz’s earlier films about women composers and inventors of electronic music, this short film offers an intimate look into the studio of American composer Laurie Spiegel (b. 1945). Renowned for her electronic music compositions and algorithmic composition software, the film also reveals all manner of musical and technological paraphernalia, ranging from sheet music to DIY inventions and collections of quirky toys. The soundtrack features electronic music composed by Spiegel and Laurie’s voiceover reflecting on electronic music and the process of composing.

The Z Gallery (Z for zinema, cinema in Basque) programme is neither a season of films nor an exhibition. It is a project that constructs an intermediate space from which to reflect on and draw attention to works by artists making the leap into the cinematographic field as well as filmmakers exploring the exhibition format. It is a programme arising from the determined gesture of thinking about the moving image in the museum. A programme that aims to bring to the public authors interested in searching for new narrative forms by questioning the genres that historically categorise cinematographic language. Curated by Garbiñe Ortega.